Royal Navy survey ship HMS Echo is ready to help search efforts to find the black box of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the ship had arrived at the location where the Chinese boat, Haixun 01, detected a "pulse signal" in the southern Indian Ocean.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said that the patrol vessel had detected a signal at 37.5 kilohertz (cycles per second) - the same frequency emitted by flight data recorders aboard the missing Boeing 777 - in the search area, Associated Press said.

HMS Echo arrived this week in the area where search efforts are focused to find the missing plane . It is now hoped the ship's sophisticated sound locating equipment will help in the hunt for the plane's flight recorders.

Flight MH370, bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, with a three-week search finding no sign of it.

A spokeswoman for the MoD said it was good news that the ship had arrived and would join in the search for the black box.

HMS Echo is not the only naval vessel providing assistance. The Australian navy's Ocean Shield, which is carrying hi-tech sound detectors from the US Navy, was also travelling to the area.